


Room? Got. Beau? Maybe not.

by YouMinLi



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Fluff and Humor, House Party, How Do I Tag, It's a college au I really don't know how to tag it besides that, M/M, Maybe like a tad of angst but it's barely there long enough to warrant this tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-24 11:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20705171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YouMinLi/pseuds/YouMinLi
Summary: The best part of having no roommate is that you don't have to share space with a person. Jongdae basically has no roommate, since apparently he's a ghost, faceless, nameless, and nonexistent besides his things and the little notes he leaves. But as the universe decrees, nothing in the world stays exactly the same, so let's see who exactly is this unnamed bedfellow, and how exactly the universe decides to keep placing him in Jongdae's path.





	Room? Got. Beau? Maybe not.

**Author's Note:**

> **This work was written for the Xingdae Fic Fest (Round 1) organized by Xingdae Café.**
> 
> Prompt #19058
> 
> I don't know how I managed to finish this. To be honest, I entered this fest because the honey gold aesthetic was too much for my crow brain to resist and this prompt was so cute and funny and I really thought it would be fun. I wasn't really a xingdae shipper, nor was I sure of what this storyline or plot was, plus I have barely written any kind of college aus, so apologies to the prompter if it turned out bad.
> 
> A huge thank you to Mod K for organising this fest and actually getting me into xingdae, (and an apology for being a troublesome author). And another to my [beta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/extensive_scribe) for keeping me decently sane/alive/going/going/alive (x2). I love you.
> 
> I didn't expect anything to turn out this way, but it was fun.

****Butterflies with tails of blue and purple flap around, drawing waves and leaving traces of their colours lingering in the air all around Jongdae. He reaches out to touch a trail, and his finger comes away with a trace of blue, which just happened to be exactly what he needed in order to finish his part of the group project, which accounts for an astronomically high portion of his final grade. But if he touches any of the other colours or butterflies, this perfect sample of colour will be ruined and Jongdae fails. 

As if the butterflies heard him, they start to swarm, making words in the air. Jongdae watches with growing horror as they spell out “Jongdae,” and doesn’t bother waiting around to see what they were planning on doing with him. He sprints for the door to this white room, the project is on the other side! All he needs to do is open the door… 

Purple butterflies cover his face just as his free hand brushes the doorknob, and a familiar sounding voice speaks in the background as Jongdae screams -

\- And sits bolt-upright in bed, heart going a billion miles per hour. Fuck! He didn’t finish his part of the group project!

It takes him a little bit to register exactly what’s going on, eyes unable to focus on anything in the slightly glowing room, light streaming in through his always just barely functional curtains. The sound he was hearing in his dream wasn’t from someone speaking, but actually apparently from the song playing through his alarm. He looks at his desk, and heaves a sigh of relief when he sees the bright blue folder on his desk. They finished the group project. It was a resounding success. He doesn’t have to worry about that.

When Jongdae looks over to his bedside table, he finds that his custom programmed alarm is not actually there, but that he had no clue where it actually is. Well, at least he’s awake on time. 

After a bit of fumbling around and following his ears, Jongdae finds his alarm in the laundry basket, purple post-it attached. Ah, his roommate probably knocked it off the desk, he’s clumsy like that.

“I replaced the battery because it was sounding slightly weak. I like today’s song. :)” 

Jongdae finds his heart warmed by the gesture, and makes a mental note to buy his roommate a new toothbrush as thanks, since his was wearing a bit down and if Jongdae buys them now, he’ll be able to get the student discount for the huge pack from the nice lady who runs the corner store. For now, he checks the time and swears under his breath, he has to hurry to get to class on time. 

~~~

“Well, well, well, look at who decided to show up?” Jongdae teases as Sehun drops into the seat next to him, sunglasses and a face mask on. The only reason Jongdae even knows that it’s Sehun and not a random stranger is that there’s no one else that just radiates the same completely done-with-life vibe that Sehun does. “The attendance policy finally caught up with you?”

“Shut up.” Sehun might be wearing a face mask, but Jongdae just knows that he’s pouting underneath. He pats his head, which Sehun grudgingly accepts, before leaning his head against Jongdae’s shoulder, digging around in his pocket. He smells like coffee and a light perfume that Jongdae could almost swear he had smelled before. He could just interrogate Sehun later, how dare he buy coffee without bringing Jongdae some too.

“You’re tired? What time did you sleep last night?” Jongdae asks, and receives nothing but silence. Instead, Sehun pulls a crumbled up blue bucket hat out of his pocket and puts it on, ignoring Jongdae’s question. 

“Wake me if Kim calls, hyung.” And within seconds, Sehun’s breathing gently against Jongdae, and Jongdae tsks slightly, opening a new page for his notes. For someone who comes to class twice a month only to fulfill the attendance requirement and sleeps through it anyways, Sehun is doing surprisingly well, and actually not failing at all. He’s lucky that it’s only Intro to Psychology or Jongdae would not lend him his notes and just let him struggle. 

“So kids, your next assignment is to person-watch.” Professor Kim starts, her red heels clicking against the floor as she takes a seat on top of her desk, beginning her class with the next assignment like usual. “Sit in public for a few hours and just watch people coming and going. Note down what they’re doing, where they’re heading, where they came from, how they’re feeling, all of the above. I’ll tell you when the due date is in a few weeks, but in the meantime, Mr. Oh, how about a quick explanation of why no one bothered to do the assigned homework yesterday?” 

Oh, she’s going straight for the throat. There is visible wincing from around the room and yeah, he should’ve known better. Jongdae pokes Sehun quickly in the ribs to wake him, if he had actually managed to fall asleep in this short amount of time, and without bothering to even sit up or appear like he’s not sleeping in class, Sehun starts speaking. 

“Well, in our group chat, someone spread the rumour that you weren’t going to be here today and so the homework was cancelled, which was direct misdirection. Since people were already hoping for no work, they were more willing to just go along with it, even when someone did correct the rumour. Even though we figured out that you were going to be here, there’s a bit of a herd mentality in how some of us just didn’t want to do it and everyone else followed along, reasoning that we could get you to think assigning the homework was a false memory since everyone else had something contrary to it.”

“Brilliant as ever, Mr. Oh. Nice to see someone’s at least doing my assigned reading. Now, while I’m not punishing anyone for not doing it, it’s going to be due tomorrow, and I better see it handed it from everyone without exception.” Professor Kim launches into her lecture as Sehun huffs, nudging Jongdae with barely any energy. It seems to indicate that Jongdae isn’t even worth the effort of saying _ I told you _ so before snuggling back up to him. And Sehun wonders why they baby him when he acts like a child. Jongin and Zitao too, for that fact. What an abundant problem. 

~~~

“Our roll cake of the day and a mint cappuccino, enjoy.” Jongdae barely gets out a thank you before the waitress is strolling away briskly, leaving Jongdae to fumble around his bag, trying to find his notebook and pull it out. Did he forget it at home? But then that just defeats the whole purpose of it in the first place.

He didn’t forget the assigned reading, which just so happens to be written by a friend of the male Professor Kim, his glasses, keys, phone, earbuds, laptop, or the five pens he was looking for yesterday. Hell, he even managed to grab the purple post-it from his roommate reminding him that they were nearly out of toilet paper and to buy more of his shampoo, but he didn’t manage to grab his one central notebook? God, he shouldn’t have ordered yet, now he can’t even leave to get it from home for fear of losing his food or his things.

“Thanks, I wanted to try this.” And with that, Jongdae’s saviour arrives, in an oversized hoodie 3 times too big, horribly dyed blue hair that is very quickly fading out from the thankfully professionally done grey, flip flops purely to irk Jongdae, and fork in hand, ready to eat Jongdae’s food for him. 

“Thank goodness you’re here, I’ve never been happy to see you randomly in public in my lifetime but you might’ve just saved me.” Jongdae pulls his roll cake out of the stabbing zone of Baekhyun’s fork, and Baekhyun pouts, sliding into the window seat next to Jongdae.

“You forgot a so.”

“I know what I said.”

“Bastard.” 

“Yeah yeah.” Jongdae waves off the insult, too glad to see Baekhyun to retaliate and waste more time. “Can you go to my dorm and grab two notebooks for me? I need to do some work.”

“Why? Shouldn’t you be asking me to watch your stuff while you run and grab it?” Jongdae watches, waits, DARES, Baekhyun’s eyes to dart to the cake roll, and just as he predicted, Baekhyun did exactly what he was expecting, that little hair-covered hard candy piece.

“No. I don’t trust you with my food.” Baekhyun shrugs at this assertion, knowing all too well that Jongdae is very accurate in this manner. He slides off the seat, having to hop down the last ten centimetres, HA SHORT, and holds a hand towards Jongdae expectantly.

“Fine.” 

Jongdae eyes Baekhyun’s open palm, and then eyes Baekhyun in the eye. Palm, eyes, palm eyes, palm, eyes. 

“I’m not paying you for this.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes, but opens his mouth, probably trying to rob Jongdae of all the money in his wallet by forcing him to treat Baekhyun for another meal. He’s still in debt to that restaurant owner, and if she wasn’t so nice, Jongdae would probably be there right now, slaving away in the kitchen again. “Fine, I’ll buy you a slice of cake, but I’m not paying for a meal.”

“Thanks, but I was going to ask for your key.” Baekhyun snarks, acting like he’s so high and mighty and that Jongdae is the stupid one. Well, nice to know that Baekhyun can at least see past that huge red nose and colourful wig on his face to recognise the clown makeup on Jongdae. 

Jongdae tugs his room key on a random shoelace string necklace over his neck and drops it in Baekhyun’s hand. This one singular good idea for being so forgetful didn’t actually even come from him, it came instead from his roommate on the form of a purple post-it, along with his lost key after the fifth time. In Jongdae’s defense, he had also found his roommate’s lost key several times, and it’s at times of need like this that forgetful people truly need to band together, and help each other live better.

“It’s the-”

“Yeah yeah yeah, I know what dorm you live in and room 217, right?” Baekhyun wiggles his fingers like that would make Jongdae wish to put his makeshift chord into Baekhyun’s hand more. It does.

He lets go and Baekhyun’s hand closes on the key about as fast as an alligator's jaws would’ve snapped on a poor zebra’s leg. “Yeah. Get me the completely black notebook on my desk and the black notebook with red sharpie saying intro to psy on it.”

“Got it. Thanks would be welcome too.” Baekhyun mutters, already heading to the door.

“Thanks, can’t live without you!” Jongdae calls after Baekhyun, and receives one thumbs-up from Baekhyun and countless judgemental looks from everyone else around. 

Baekhyun walks back in with not only the two notebooks Jongdae asked for, but a plastic bag and a cup of Starbucks. He’s really gonna be out here bringing Starbucks into a coffee shop, alright then. 

“Hey heathen, what are you doing?” Jongdae asks, and Baekhyun tosses the notebooks onto the table in front of him, taking the other window seat with an affronted look.

“Hey, I didn’t have to walk two blocks to grab this for you, but go off I guess.” 

“No, not that.” Jongdae indicates his head at the cup still in Baekhyun’s hand with as much snooty coffee cOnnoisSeUr energy as he can muster, considering that he knows like nothing about coffee. “The Starbucks. You’re the love of my life for grabbing my notebooks, but Starbucks? Really? At least pretend to not be the filthy street rat you are.”

“I thought the love of your life was that bill you found in the street.” Baekhyun comments, sipping on his Starbucks like the maniac he is.

“Yeah, it is, but like I just used it so there’s an opening.” 

Baekhyun shrugs, already not listening to what Jongdae says, mind solely on the force that controls all, that roll cake. “Yeah yeah, can I take a bite?” Even if Jongdae said no, Baekhyun’s fork is already in hand, indicating an inability to take no for an answer.

“Sure, help yourself.” 

Baekhyun nods, staring at the unblemished roll cake, mesmerised as he tries to find the perfect point to start. Jongdae can’t exactly blame him. The roll cake, in one word, is shiny. Sure, it would invoke images of the popular five member group SHINee with its silver and grey-black design that every boy group in the early 2000-2010s had, but it’s just so, glittery. The light shines on it like a spotlight on a soon to be stolen museum artifact, and the simple black design bold and centre demands to be stabbed yet is too striking to be, and Jongdae would expect to hear a song by that very specific group start to play if he dared to bite into it, perhaps Sherlock, which made up part of the reason why he hadn’t started consuming it yet. The other reason is that Baekhyun would whined about not getting to stab it himself, and Jongdae would prefer for that not to happen.

Then Baekhyun stabs the edge of the roll cake, ruining it forever, sending edible glitter all over the plate. 

_ “Babe 네게 반해버린 내게 왜 이래 두렵다고 물러서지 말고 그냥 내게 맡겨봐라 어때 my lady” _

Dammit, it’s not Sherlock. But Baekhyun still starts at the sudden sound pouring out of the speakers, someone accidentally rolling the volume up way too high, and falls out of the seat. Jongdae does, obviously the mature and age-appropriate thing that would be expected of him. He laughs until he too, falls out of the chair. 

Eventually, Jongdae is forced to stop laughing as they both seat themselves properly again. Baekhyun’s pouting like he’s been personally attacked, but it’s Jongdae’s arm that hurts more from Baekhyun attacking him when he hit the floor, so he isn’t quite sure why Baekhyun’s complaining. 

“Hey, buy me a coffee.” Baekhyun demands around a mouthful of Jongdae’s roll cake, and Jongdae stares at the half-gone dessert. 

“Bitch, you ate half of my cake and you want me to buy you a drink? You have money, buy it yourself!” The fucking nerve of Byun Baekhyun.

“But you have a part time job and I don’t! I’m poor and you need to take care of me. Best friend rules!” Baekhyun puts on puppy eyes, leaning on Jongdae’s arm to try and convince him. Jongdae leans back as far as he can, feeling bones in his spine crack due to his disuse, absolutely disgusted with this turn of events.

“Who said you’re my best friend, clown?” 

“You just called me the love of your life, liar. Besides, you owe me for falling on me!” Well, Baekhyun has a point, but Jongdae thinks about the prospect of letting more money flow out of his pocket, and thinks he would rather donate blood.

“I take that back, the love of my life is my coffee. I didn’t even get to take a bite of the cake because you ate the whole thing!” Baekhyun backs off immediately, even though he has not a drop of remorse in his eyes. He takes his fork and scoops up a very generous portion of roll cake, taking special care to dip it in the glitter again and raises it slowly, moving towards Jongdae.

“Open wide, it’s pretty good.” So Jongdae lets Baekhyun feed him. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t the cafe managing to make shiny and sparkly a flavour. There’s just no better description than shiny, and Jongdae wonders if he can quit his job at the convenience store to take a gig here and steal their secrets.

“Oh shit.” He utters.

“Oh shit.” Baekhyun agrees. Then he holds his hand out for Jongdae’s wallet. 

“I hate you.” Jongdae puts in as much hatred and pain as he can into that one statement, as he reluctantly pulls out his wallet anyways and hands it over.

Baekhyun just shrugs, accepting an enemy as long as he has food.

Now with Baekhyun out of the way briefly, he can finally attempt to get to work people-watching those passing by on the street. Jongdae chose this cafe specifically for the fact that it faces a park, so he can watch kids and their parents play on the playground and the dogs passing by. And the day is the type of day that makes people want to be out, nice temperatures, a sun that practically joins birds in chorus, and the sky with lazily hanging clouds that drags people out of the house whether they want to or not.

He’s observing a particularly cute child throwing a ball barely three steps from her body and a german shepard still eagerly retrieving it for her when a movement catches his eye. It’s a body that Jongdae hasn’t had the opportunity to observe often, but moves with a fluidness that makes him look almost like a mirage, like reality is bending around to let him move. Jongdae can’t see his face from this perspective, but he can see the notebook he also holds, and the nice way his shoulder muscles move under his tank tops as he moves his arms slightly as he walks, and that’s probably enough creepily checking someone out for today. Then he turns, preparing to cross over to the park, and Jongdae catches his face as he looks both ways for oncoming traffic. It's only then that Jongdae realizes he recognizes the guy.

Well, not officially - since Jongdae’s not the type who would go up to people and just introduce himself, but he’s the one guy who sits all the way on the left of their psyc hall in the same row as Jongdae, on the other side of the group of girls between them. And Jongdae’s also seen him around the performing arts buildings several times, usually with a dark duffel bag that his roommate also has. 

He has to be one of the cutest people Jongdae’s had the pleasure of seeing in his life, and it’s all a waste because he’s never even been able to ask his name. 

“Who are you staring at?” Baekhyun slams his wallet down onto the table, and reminds Jongdae very abruptly about the heart condition in his mother’s family. Sure, it only affected the females, but maybe Jongdae’s an outlier.

“What did you buy?” Jongdae grumbles, hoping that he had actually inherited his grandfather’s iron heart that managed to live through three cardiac arrests and two heart attacks, while willing his pulse to slow in the case that he didn’t. Baekhyun doesn’t get the hint and plows forward, intent on embarrassing Jongdae like it’s his job. It is. Jongdae pays him.

“A drink and another cake. Who were you looking at though? Are they cute? Want me to get their number for you so you can stop complaining about being a third wheel all the time?” Baekhyun bounces on the balls of his feet, suddenly composed of nothing but energy.

“I’m not looking at anyone, I’m people-watching for psyc.” Jongdae feels his heart rate start to slow and takes a sigh of relief. Baekhyun isn’t as easily placated, frowning at Jongdae.

“Kim Jongdae, you are literally the worst liar on this planet. Now who is it?” Baekhyun hops onto his stool, and Jongdae feels his heartbeat jump up again. For some weird reason, he has the sudden feeling that if Baekhyun saw him, he would instantly be able to tell.

“No-” He turns to the window and the cute guy is gone, disappeared with the crowd. “one. I told you that I wasn’t staring at anyone.” 

Baekhyun still looks like he doesn’t believe him at all, but the waitress brings over his food at the moment, cutting him off and saving Jongdae 10 years of having to hear about it. But when Baekhyun isn’t paying attention, Jongdae looks at the street corner where he last saw the music boy, who once again disappears into thin air.

~~~

“So, if you want to see your boyfriend, why am I being dragged along?” While there are certainly worse ways to spend a Saturday, being dragged around by a dude in loafers and shorts isn’t anywhere near the top of the list. Baekhyun’s grip on his wrist is vise-like as they navigate through the performing arts building with surprising ease. While Jongdae would like to be finishing the work due Monday so he can get to his part-time job without having to worry about doing it there, he’s already resigned himself to this fate and will not be trying to escape any time soon.

“He’s not my boyfriend-“ Baekhyun starts.

“Liar.”

“Fuck off, and I’m bringing you along so you don’t waste away inside like the undried raisin you are.” Baekhyun swerves around a group of people all carrying string instrument cases, leaving Jongdae swinging around behind him like a toy car connected to a bike, trying his best not to knock into everyone like a pinball in the machine of life.

“I’m pretty sure that’s a grape.” Jongdae remarks as Baekhyun takes a left into a smaller hallway and then into a stairwell hiddenly cleverly behind a sheet music stand. Unlike the rest of the brightly lit and crowded building, this specific stairwell is so empty that Jongdae can hear the slight gasp of his breathing echo, and the few lights all have a slightly blue tint that makes time seem just a bit slower and things just a slight bit louder. “And what are we doing? I was told there would be snacks and you’ve pulled me straight into the only building with a food ban.” On the flip side, the demand for snacks has blossomed into a brilliant and very well paid food delivery service inside. 

“Patience, young one.” Baekhyun avows, opening a door back into the regular dimension and pulling them straight into a meeting of a bunch of singers, basically all girls, crowding the halls and chirping about where to have lunch. “Oh, shit.” Baekhyun catches sight of one of the girls and then bee-lines to the first door he sees, shoving Jongdae into the clearly already occupied dance studio and slamming the door.

“What did you do now?” A voice comes from the other corner of the studio as Baekhyun pushes Jongdae onto the floor and falls down himself, getting out of view from the window.

Kyungsoo stares at Baekhyun, in the middle of a semi-circle of papers trapping him into the corner, like he wants to be surprised but can’t even do that, while Jongin twirls in the centre of the room, earbuds in and eyes closed. He’s doing that ballet thing where he just turns around and around on one foot in place like a music box piece, and Jongdae is nothing but impressed.

“Oh, fancy meeting you here, Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun gives a weak smile as if that would be able to change everything. It doesn’t.

“Who did you piss off this time?” Kyungsoo asks again, Jongin twirling again and again for dramatic effect.

“No one!” He lies.

“Then why did you try to smash my skull in by knocking me into the ground after seeing that TA?” Jongdae grumbles, rubbing his slightly throbbing kneecap. Kyungsoo doubles his effort with the glare, now with more hatred.

“I might owe her some money.” Baekhyun admits, crawling over so he’s not directly in front of the door, not giving Jongdae an apology of any kind. 

“Jongdae, which TA is it? I think I might know why.” Kyungsoo shuffles some papers and pulls out his phone, probably to record evidence.

Jongdae opens his mouth, but before he can say a thing, hands slap over them aggressively and he feels Baekhyun behind him, ready to choke Jongdae into oblivion.

“I swear to god if you say her name I will end you.” Baekhyun hisses in his ear. Obviously that’s only going to make him want to do it more, and Jongdae starts actually fighting against Baekhyun, squirming and elbowing and trying to land a good kick as he pulls at Baekhyun’s arms.

“Eww, you licked me!” Baekhyun squeals, and Jongdae resolves to not just do that but to also bite his finger.

Unfortunately, they’re both weak and hilariously bad at this, so instead of what Jongdae mentally imagines as the brawl of the century, it probably looks more like two wet fish wiggling around on the ground pathetically. Jongdae tries his best to just get Baekhyun to give up by purely licking him, but despite how much Baekhyun squeals, he’s not going to let go. Instead, Jongdae manages to finally kick Baekhyun just as he pulls both arms slightly off, and shout “Amber-kaheujsvdhdndd!”

While Kyungsoo calmly records the crucial missing information down, Baekhyun stops trying to prevent information from getting out, and instead focuses purely on how he could possibly punish Jongdae for his sin. 

“I just told Amber that you’ll be handing in the money next week, so don’t forget.” Kyungsoo cuts Baekhyun off right in the middle of him trying to now throttle Jongdae to death, and he pauses, giving Jongdae ample time to escape and restrict Baekhyun instead.

“But I don’t have the money to pay her, Soo!” Jongdae doesn’t need to see Baekhyun’s face to know that he’s making the “please take mercy on me and help” face, but it would be fun to see. 

“Well, that’s your problem.” Kyungsoo slides his phone away and Baekhyun groans as he falls back against Jongdae, laying his head against Jongdae’s shoulder as if trying to faint away from his problems. 

But what is the circumstances that has Baekhyun falling into debt? And more importantly, why does Kyungsoo know while Jongdae doesn’t get to laugh at him? This situation is completely wrong. Jongdae tries to move as slightly as he can to meet Kyungsoo’s eyes, trusting in Kyungsoo’s amazing people skills to instantly detect what Jongdae wants, if only he could _ just _meet his eyes!

Thankfully, Kyungsoo eventually gets the hint and nods slightly, mimicking texting with his hands to imply that Jongdae will very much get to know exactly what Baekhyun did wrong this time, just later so none of them has to sit through Baekhyun’s wrath in the present. Baekhyun shifts slightly in Jongdae’s arms, tilting his head even more back to reveal perfectly the very vulnerable and smooth skin of his neck, while squinting at Jongdae and trying to catch him in the act. Baekhyun might suspect them two, but he can’t say anything just yet. Or maybe he can, since he opens his mouth to speak.

And is immediately cut off by a very familiar voice booming through a small speaker that has no right being this loud, and sends Baekhyun falling over as Jongdae hurries as fast as he can to cover his ears, Baekhyun not even complaining as he does the same. 

“SOO! SHUT IT OFF!“ Baekhyun yells before he’s even fully on the ground, and in the sudden silence that springs, there’s another thud, landing right in front of Jongdae. 

Jongin curls into himself as best as he can, giving Jongdae the best smile he can as he clutches his leg like a taut rubber band about to snap. This analogy is quite appropriate because if either was to be allowed to fly forwards, it would probably end its journey at Jongdae’s face. “Oh, hi hyung.”

“Hi, Jongin.” Jongdae says breathlessly, scrambling to get his face out of danger’s way before reaching down to help Jongin up as well.

“Sorry. I forgot that it was up too high.” Kyungsoo apologises, the sound of his voice suddenly a bit too loud after the piercing silence that Jongdae and Jongin had barely touched. And while Jongdae usually doesn’t glare at Kyungsoo, he thinks that he can make an exception for nearly blasting out their eardrums and barely looking regretful.

“It’s okay.” Jongin accepts the apology first despite being the least affected, though he was so startled he fell over so he does have a right to it. Looking Baekhyun and Jongdae over like it was the first time he saw them, though it probably is, he gently pulls his earbuds out of his ears and shoves them messily into a pocket, pulling a smile on just as easily. “And Baekhyun-hyung! I didn’t notice you two were here, did you just come in?”

“Yeah, we just came in.” Jongdae answers for Baekhyun, nudging Baekhyun’s crumbled up body still on the floor before reaching down to pull him up too. Baekhyun gives him a slightly dirty look before he wraps an arm around Jongdae’s shoulders and makes to pull him away.

“And now we are going to be going, don’t wanna be late after telling Yeollie a time, you know how it is.” Baekhyun steers Jongdae towards the door before he has a chance to protest, leaving Kyungsoo and Jongin staring after them in silence. “Bye, see ya soon!” And then he slams the door and Jongdae finds himself in the far emptier hallway with Baekhyun still practically pushing him forwards, wisps of music starting to drift out from the room they just vacated.

“What was that for?” Jongdae demands, digging in his heels so that Baekhyun can’t move him forwards without his permission. “We never even told Chanyeol that we were visiting.”

“I don’t want to intrude on their time, Soo’s clearly in the middle of a lot of work.” Baekhyun hastily inserts, linking arms with Jongdae and pulling him forwards this way, his eyes shifting away from Jongdae before meeting him dead on like how he does when he’s lying. Whatever, it’s Jongin and Kyungsoo, it’s not going to blow up in his face. 

So he lets Baekhyun pull him through the rest of the building, slipping from the brightly painted orange walls into the more subtle blue, music halls. 

“Where is Chanyeol?” Jongdae asks, dodging a double bassist and the rest of a strings section. “And where are you planning on taking us afterwards?”

“He’s in here, you unruly hooligan.” Baekhyun pushes open a door and the sound of guitar pours out into the hall, letting Baekhyun and Jongdae slip in. The guitarist in question doesn’t react when Baekhyun slams the door close, continuing to strum away at the school owned “basic” guitar, his back to the door.

“How long have you been withering away in here?” Jongdae taps on Chanyeol’s shoulder, getting him to turn around and smile sheepishly even as he continues to play. 

“I’ve only been in here for a few hours to work on this piece, how does it sound?” Then Chanyeol’s eyes dart pass Jongdae’s and his hands halt, pressing down too hard right in the middle of a chord, choking out the sound and the vibrations as he stares at Baekhyun a bit too much like he’s been caught stealing from a cookie jar. 

“You’re doing great. Want to go do something with us?” Chanyeol looks back at Jongdae and erases the startled guilt on his face as best as he can, but the smile now on his isn’t as casual as it was earlier. “I’m not too sure what exactly we’re doing because someone refuses to tell me.” Jongdae looks behind him to roll his eyes at Baekhyun, receiving a roll of eyes back in return.

There’s a quiet thud as Chanyeol gets up and hangs the guitar on the wall, offering surprisingly little resistance for once about cutting his practicing time short. Usually they’ll have to get through two complaints before they can convince him to put it down and get up, but it’s been a weird day.

“Sure, so where are we going?” He asks, picking his bag up from the floor and putting it on. 

“Oh, it’s a surprise.” Baekhyun’s mischievous smirk isn’t as mischievous as it should be, and he tenses up for a split second when Chanyeol brushes past him to open the door, untensing immediately afterwards. 

“So where am I supposed to go?” Chanyeol stands in the doorframe, looking back at Jongdae and Baekhyun helplessly. 

“Just head out. I’ll lead as soon as we’re outside.” Chanyeol nods at Baekhyun’s suggestion and walks out, leaving Baekhyun and Jongdae alone in the room.

“Are you alright?” Jongdae confronts his best friend, not because he can’t confront Chanyeol, but because he’ll feel worse if he does that. 

“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong at all.” Baekhyun’s eyes shift away before focusing on him again, and Jongdae rolls his own, unfortunately knowing that this headstrong creature would’ve done this.

“Fine, let’s pretend I believe you. If you want to talk, just tell me.” Jongdae slips his hand into Baekhyun’s, receiving a grateful look from his best friend. And so they walk forwards down this narrow hallway, following Chanyeol.

Someone bumps against Jongdae’s shoulder, clearly in a rush in this hallway not built for too many people walking line in line. 

“Sorry.” He barely looks up to apologise, and before Jongdae could say anything, he’s gone. But from what Jongdae caught of his face, he could’ve sworn that it was the music boy. 

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun asks, catching Jongdae looking after where he had disappeared around a corner. Chanyeol pauses too, also looking to Jongdae for an explanation. 

“I thought I saw someone familiar.” Jongdae replies hastily, and Chanyeol and Baekhyun exchange the look that makes it clear that they don’t believe him at all. But it’s not exactly a lie, the music boy is familiar!

“What did they look like? I know a lot of people who would usually come to the building, I probably know them.” Chanyeol offers his services, and Jongdae shakes his head, trying to get that idea out of his head before it even finishes.

“Oh, I just see him around a lot here.”

“Well, there are a bunch of people who literally live here.” 

“You included.” Baekhyun butts in, giving Chanyeol a roll of his eyes, which Chanyeol frowns to, instead of the usual sheepish smile he would’ve had on.

“So let’s not worry about this dude, I’ll see him again later.” Jongdae inserts, trying to usher them forwards again so they’re not just in the middle of the hall standing around. 

Baekhyun still doesn’t look that convinced, but Chanyeol is nicer and just shrugs it off, starting forwards and cutting Baekhyun off before he can start. Somehow, following Chanyeol through the building is a lot faster than it was following Baekhyun, and within seconds, Chanyeol is holding open the door for the exit.

“Well, now where are we going to go now?” Chanyeol asks, waiting for Baekhyun and Jongdae to catch up. Maybe it’s just Jongdae’s imagination, but Chanyeol’s eyes flicker down to their joined hands and a crease appears between his eyebrows before erasing itself, so rapidly that it’s like it never existed in the first place. 

“You’ll see.” Baekhyun singsongs in response, pulling Jongdae out the door and forwards into the day. Chanyeol just huffs before falling into step with Jongdae, slave to Baekhyun’s wanderings.

~~~

Chanyeol waves slightly as he closes the door to his own dorm, leaving Jongdae alone in the hallway as he fishes his key out of his pockets. Baekhyun’s big surprise turned out to be tickets to the newest superhero movie, which Chanyeol enjoyed immensely and Jongdae enjoyed slightly less than Chanyeol. 

His dorm is still dark, very typical, seeing that Jongdae’s not even really sure his roommate uses this room. He turns on the lights as he drops the key on his desk, it needs a new shoelace, and pulls off his light sweater. It lands more or less in the laundry basket so Jongdae decides that it’s just going to be considered in, and flops onto the bed. He still needs to finish his work, but he’s still in such a happy mood that he doesn’t want spoiled by school, and there’s a lot that happened today.

First, Baekhyun’s keeping something from him. Kyungsoo hasn’t texted him about what suddenly put him in debt to Amber, the sports medicine major that honestly doesn’t look like a TA for anything, and who is usually really nice and easygoing. Sure, Kyungsoo doesn’t seem like he’ll be asleep yet, but Jongdae’s phone is completely dead, so maybe Kyungsoo already texted all of it and he doesn’t know yet. But then again, it seems like more than one thing that Baekhyun is actually keeping from him, since he dragged him out as soon as Jongin tried to speak.

Second, there’s something weird with their trio. Of course, Baekhyun’s shady, but Chanyeol’s also acting off. They sat in age order today because Baekhyun sat down first and then Chanyeol muttered a hasty excuse about the bathroom and needing another drink before turning away from the middle seat and trying to rush away as fast as possible. Something happened between the two and Jongdae would greatly appreciating also knowing what.

Third, the music boy. They really do seem to be bumping into each other often, this time quite literally. Jongdae would like to know who he is.

He would also like to talk to someone about this. What do you do when your two best friends are the ones you’re trying to figure out and other people would probably confront the two in question because their tact is not in the category of most abundant? This is why Jongdae takes psychology, to be honest.

And with that, the inspiration to do work suddenly appears and Jongdae bounces up, heading for his desk so that he can harness this mysterious energy before it disappears. There’s a new purple post-it on top of his open reminders notebook, unclosed from when Jongdae was dragged outside in the morning and Jongdae reaches for a pen and a blue post-it to respond.

“I bought some new laundry detergent because you seemed to be running out, and there’s some healthy drinks to keep your strength up when studying in the fridge. Thank you for folding my clothes too! :)” 

When Jongdae pulls the mini-fridge open, there indeed are some of those protein smoothies that were being advertised in the market, as well as some snacks, healthier than what Jongdae probably would’ve gotten for himself. Jongdae’s never even met the guy, but he’s just so nice.

“Thank you for the snacks and drinks! They look and taste delicious!” Jongdae pens, sticking the blue post-it on the fridge. The smoothie he pulled out actually does taste good, so he’s not lying. Jongdae looks at the purple post-it with its quick and neatly hurried korean and looks at the drink in his hand. The post-it, his drink, the post-it, the drink, and suddenly that thought that was trying to force its way into his head make it. 

What if he tells his roommate about the problem? 

He’s a complete outsider so he can’t actually tell Baekhyun or Chanyeol, he’s nice enough to hopefully actually listen, and he’s caring so he’ll probably know what to do. Plus, he’s a medical student, they look like they know what they’re doing.

At least Jongdae hopes. Does anyone really know what to do in college?

But here’s the answer to his problems! Or at least one of them. And Jongdae’s not going to be able to focus on anything else anyways, the burst of motivation disappeared as fast as it came.

“Hey, can I tell you about something? I just want some want to tell someone about this problem, and I can’t go to my best friends.”

Jongdae sets it on top of his roommate’s desk and decides to settle in bed. There’s not much else he can do tonight anyways, might as well try to salvage one part of his health and get some sleep.

~~~

“And why should I agree?” Jongdae raises an eyebrow, hoping that Baekhyun can hear the amount of displeasure in his voice. 

A purple post-it sits in front of him, unmistakably clear that Jongdae suddenly has a single answer. “Sure. I don’t know if I’ll be able to give good advice, but I can keep a secret and listen.”

“I’ll pay for the whole thing! You can sit in the cafe for the whole day if you want and buy as much as you want, you just have to go on the date.” Baekhyun offers, giving Jongdae a really good deal. This is too good of a good deal.

“What are you planning?” Jongdae shoves the post-it into his pocket, resolving to give an answer when he gets back. He grabs his notebook and somehow gets his shoes on as Baekhyun blabbers on, trying to convince him.

“Okay fine, it’s going to be a blind date.”

“I don’t-”

“I know, you don’t want to be on a blind date, yada yada.” Baekhyun cuts Jongdae off before he can protest, and Jongdae rolls his eyes hopefully at the same time as Baekhyun as he lets himself out and locks the door, keys, wallet and phone secure on his person. “But give him a change, Nini and Tao think that he’ll fit with your personality and they both spent a very long time trying to convince him to say yes.”

“And so you think that I won’t need a lot of convincing to say yes too?” Jongdae grumbles, waving at his RA as he passes, receiving one back from Namjoon in return. 

“You like free food.” 

Shit, he’s right, Jongdae does like free food.

“Yeah, but is all the free food worth a blind date? I don’t even go on regular dates with people I know I like.”

“That’s why you go with people you don’t know! So you can get to know them and fall in love.” Baekhyun pushes, sounding like a salesman. Man, is Luhan the finance major or is it Baekhyun? 

“Is this why you didn’t want me to talk to Jongin yesterday? And why do you want me to go on a blind date so much?” Jongdae questions, conceding a bit of ground.

Baekhyun clearly realises it too, his tone brightening up immediately. “Well, aren’t you so smart because of those philosophy classes?”

“No, I’m just smart, goldfish.” Jongdae snarks. “And my second question?”

“Geez, I was getting there, learn some patience.” Baekhyun sighs, mimicking his grandma. Too bad his impression is so off because his grandma is nice and not actually a little bitch. “The blind dates are a way for you to actually get out there and try to find love. Or maybe just get outside a little more, you’re not really doing much of either.”

“Thank you so much Mr. I-only-stay-inside-and-play-video-games for your input, I really appreciate the advice.” 

“You’re very welcome. I do really try.” Baekhyun accepts, sounding a bit too gleeful. “I just want to see my best friend happy and not wasting his potential as this school’s most eligible bachelor.”

“Fine. But who would we be double-dating with?”

Baekhyun pauses for a second, a hitch of his breath as he does exactly what Jongdae was hoping for, judging who his own date might be. “Look, you’re not getting your blind date’s name out of me until three minutes before time, I’m not that much of an idiot.” 

“No, I meant your date. Would Chanyeol be here with us or would I need to double date with him separately?” Baekhyun doesn’t respond immediately to this like he usually would, leaving a silence falling across the phone and suddenly burying into the day. Oh, so it’s that kind of trouble between Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

“Oh, I’m almost to the building, so I’ll talk to you later.” Jongdae cuts the conversation off, not necessarily because of actually arriving, but to escape the silence that is suddenly taking hold.

“What building? Are you actually outside for once?” Baekhyun recovers immediately, not a hint of trouble in his tone. This is why Jongdae prefers seeing him, he can’t read any tells if they’re not face to face.

“I need to see Professor Lee for office hours, this new thing he assigned is going to kill me.”

“Well then stay alive sweetheart.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Bye then, darling.”

And before Baekhyun can tell him to not call him darling, Jongdae ends the call and walks into the building with a new perspective on this mess.

~~~

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Jongdae finishes toweling his hair as he walks over to the buzzing phone on his desk. It’s Kyungsoo, finally updating him with the necessary information about Amber and Baekhyun.

“Baekhyun owes Amber because of a bet at her back to school party. They bet that Baekhyun wouldn’t be able to ask the person he likes out before the person figures out that Baekhyun likes them, and then Amber spent the rest of the party dropping hints”

“Chanyeol?”

“Yep. He overheard Baekhyun whining to Amber and then pulled him out to talk. Don’t think Baekhyun won” 

“Ah. Thanks”

“No prob”

So there are relationship problems between Chanyeol and Baekhyun. Interesting.

There are also wet drops on Jongdae’s shoulder, because apparently he didn’t dry his hair enough. He pulls his towel off the bed and puts it back around his shoulders, before picking up a blue post-it.

“My two best friends are having a bit of a relationship crisis and they’re acting weird and trying to not associate with each other. One of them definitely likes the other and the other might’ve found out about it, but there are things going on.” Jongdae sticks this one on his roommate’s lamp, then picks up a pencil to start doing some work.

~~~

“And so that’s all we have time for today, folks. See everyone tomorrow bright and early, dismissed.” Professor Lee picks up her books and stands to go, leaving behind a classroom still full of confused kids hurriedly taking notes before the projector shuts off and leaves them all in perpetual confusion. Jongdae, however, is not one of them. He gave up twenty minutes into the class.

“That was interesting today.” Luhan comments, slinging an arm around Jongdae as he tries to escape from the place of hell, keeping him in place as they wait for Junmyeon to finish a few last notes.

“Can you explain it to me then?” Jongdae raises an eyebrow, his brain completely fried. Just because some of them are just blessed with good math skills doesn’t mean that everyone is.

“It’s just a bunch of probability, easy stuff.” Luhan says that a bit too loud and gains a round of silent glares, before everyone turns their attention back to the screen. He winces and lowers his voice as he continues, “You just need to know how the probabilities fit together and how they affect each other.”

“You say it like I’ll understand better.” Jongdae moans, and Junmyeon scribbles a few last words down and shoves it into his bag.

“Okay, we can go now.” He declares, standing up and heading towards the door after a few others who had actually decided to go, either because they understand it completely or not at all.

“If you hate math this much, why don’t you just drop the class then? You too, Jun, neither of you need to slough through this if you don’t want to.” Luhan pushes the door open for them, and they walk straight into the sunlight. Junmyeon actually hisses a little as Luhan slides on some sunglasses, not having the courtesy to offer them sunglasses too.

“I want to get through it. I chose this, so I’m going to make it through.” Jongdae declares, completely aware his self-sacrifice is an equivalent to throwing himself into a well, or committing suicide by drinking liqiud mercury like those old emperors used to do.

Junmyeon, however, just mutters something as he looks down at the ground, kicking a rock as he walks forwards.

“What did you say? My Korean isn’t that good, I’m afraid you’re going to have to speak up a little, please.” Luhan taunts, nudging into Junmyeon a little to get him to speak. It’s all completely lies anyways, Luhan is probably more fluent than him anyways, and at this point he just rubs it in like it’s nothing.

“I said-” Junmyeon cuts himself off when he realises how loud he’s being, and then calms down a little, “that I made a bet with Yifan that I wouldn’t drop out of math just because I think it’s hard and I am not going to lose.”

“Wow, who knew that in order to get the great Kim Junmyeon to do something, all you need to do is dare him?” Luhan smirks, and Junmyeon hits in the arm for that. “And what’s the penalty if you lose?”

Junmeyon turns a slight shade of pink and walks faster, closing his lips tightly. Jongdae laughs as Luhan joggs forwards to catch up with Junmyeon, intent on embarrassing him some more.

“What is it? It can’t possibly be that bad, can it? Luhan asks, a huge smile crossing his face. “It’s Yifan, how bad can I be?”

“Yeah, like Baekhyun and Chanyeol have embarrassed me a lot more before, Yifan can’t possibly match up with any of that.” Jongdae chimes in, nudging into Junmyeon. “What is it?”

“He told me that Minseok gave him the idea after doing something to you. And I am not going to follow in your footsteps, hyung.” Junmyeon practically spits, pointing directly at Luhan as his face grows three shades darker, and then continues his near sprint away.

“Wait, what?” Luhan’s smile is now frozen on his face, a perfect picture of horror as he considers what could’ve happened. “No, wait, did Minseok actually tell him about that? Junmyeon!” 

“Yes, that!” Junmyeon wails, now actually sprinting, his face so red that it’s almost completely red. “I don’t want to even look at you! Why did you do this to me!?” 

“Kim Junmyeon, get back here!” Luhan breaks into a run too, the tips of his ears reddening as he chases Junmyeon.

“Hey why are you running? What is that?!” Jongdae shouts after the duo. But no one answers, so he sighs, and then prepares himself for a long run. Junmyeon’s currently hyped up on adrenaline and probably fear of what Luhan would do to him if he was caught, and Luhan does football, leaving Jongdae as the most unfit here. Dammit, why did they have to do this?

He finally catches up to the duo at the front of the Citrus dorm building, where Luhan had cornered Junmyeon and is currently interrogating or threatening him in fast Mandarin, probably actually a lot faster than how much Junmyeon actually knows. This doesn’t help Jongdae at all, since he knows absolutely no Mandarin at all, and can do nothing more than just pant pathetically as he leans against the wall.

“So what was that about? And what is the thing that you two are referring to?” 

“None of your business.” Luhan snarls, surprisingly aggressive. Jongdae raised his hands in surrender and Luhan shoots one final warning glare at Junmyeon before softening up again. “Sorry. Where do you want to get lunch?” 

Junmyeon, showing once more that he is made out of tougher stuff than anyone would ever believe and that Luhan is weaker than you would believe, dusts some fake dust off his bag and pulls out his phone. “Want to try out this new restaurant I found? It’s pretty cheap and has a really good review.” 

“Wait, we’re eating out?” Jongdae interjects, thinking about the amount of money he has, which is very easy to picture since he broke. 

Junmyeon scoffs. “What are you worried about? No matter what, you’re not going to be the one paying.” 

“Rock paper scissors for the bill.” Luhan holds his fist out, ready to go.

“But why me? You’re the oldest, hyung!” Junmyeon complains, but still curling his fist as he speaks.

“Yeah but you brought up the restaurant and you know the rules.” Luhan reminds, and Junmyeon nods, ready to Rock Paper Scissors. The rule that whoever decides what they eat has to pay for it had brought financial ruin upon many, until then someone, probably Sehun, decided that the eldest and the one who decides would just Rock Paper Scissors for the bill and the loser takes it. Kyungsoo usually has pretty good luck in these games, which is good since he usually tells them what he wants to eat and everyone else automatically decides they want to eat it too.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” 

“Hey! Is that Luhan I see?” Luhan doesn’t even fully uncurl his fist before he drops it, ditching the game before Junmyeon can throw his hand.

“Jackson! Nice to see you.” Luhan holds a hand out for the standard greeting but Jackson just takes it to pull him into a hug. “So what are you doing here?”

“Me?” Jackson asks, now with Junmyeon in what looks like a very loving chokehold. “I’m saying hi to the good friends I haven’t seen in so long.” 

He turns towards Jongdae and even though Jongdae doesn’t really know him that well, he accepts the hug. Jackson smells like candy corn and hugs like a teddy bear. 

Luhan rolls his eyes good-naturedly and Jackson pouts, only cheering up when Luhan pats him on the back and offers a mimic of an apology. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. But seriously, what are you doing here?” 

“It wasn’t my original intention to come over,” Jackson stresses, with a very pointed look at Luhan, “but I’m having a party, so do you think you guys can come?” 

“You’re inviting all of us?” Junmyeon asks, suspicious that Jackson, famous for his private ragers, would be inviting them to a party and not just Luhan. 

“Yeah. The more the merrier. Bring all your friends and maybe a few teachers if you think they’re cool.” Jackson throws out casually, as if he did that on a regular. 

“But why are you having a party?” Luhan pipes up, even more suspicious than Junmyeon. 

“To just celebrate getting this far into school. It’s been a long few weeks.” Jackson waves off casually. “It’s going to be tomorrow night and I’ll text everyone the address later, is that fine?” 

“Sure.” Junmyeon says hesitantly, as if Jackson might suddenly take the offer off the table. “We were going to lunch, want to join?” 

“Sure! I’ll pay since you’re inviting me.” Jackson volunteers, and Junmyeon and Luhan share a look that says they’re clearly both very happy that they aren’t the one paying as they start walking off, leading the way to the restaurant.

Jongdae, however, meets Jackson’s eyes as they start following behind. Jackson’s eyes are completely serious, not a hint of the good cheer his voice had. And besides, what kind of a self-respecting college student would ever volunteer to take the bill without seeing it first? [Jackson just puts a finger up to his lips and winks.](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/PartyOfDestiny) And since Jongdae knows better than to argue, he just nods and goes along. It’s probably not going to affect him anyways.

~~~

Jackson drops him off at his dorms after they finished lunch, claiming that he had someone to see in the building. 

Jongdae comes back to an empty room. It shouldn’t surprise him, but he never knows when his roommate could be in, especially since he’s never come back in the middle of the day like this before. 

There’s a pretty purple post-it on Jongdae’s bed, and Jongdae picks it up to read as he falls back into bed.

“Well, maybe you should talk to them. But if they don’t want others involved, then it’ll probably be best if you get them to talk to each other, since you said that they’re not really talking.” 

That’s true. And they’ll never actually talk about it on their own because Baekhyun is stubborn and doesn’t like facing situations head on and Chanyeol would never try to intentionally do something if he thinks it’ll push someone else, which is clearly what’s going on right now. And there just so happened to be the perfect situation to get them truly alone and face to face. 

Jackson did say the more the merrier, after all.

~~~

There’s balloons taped to the windows and light shining clearly from the other side of the thin shutters. The closer he gets, the more apparent that the thumping vibrating against your soul is coming from the party. 

“Tell me why are we here again?” Baekhyun asks, all skinny jeans and eyeliner, and not looking like a hot mess for once. His hair is finally redyed properly the faintest bit violet, though you can see more dustings of grey than violet. If Baekhyun wasn’t, well, Baekhyun, Jongdae probably would’ve wanted to fuck him. Unfortunately he is, so instead, Jongdae settles for wrapping an arm around his shoulders and moving him towards the door.

“Because it’s a party and Jackson told me the more the merrier.” Baekhyun seems to be having a few too many second thoughts, and Jongdae has to remedy that. “Besides, you don’t want to get free alcohol and get wasted?” 

“I actually wanted to finish my homework before I went to sleep for once.” Baekhyun remarks, scowl on his face as he stares at the balloons like they’re personally offending him. 

“Now I know that you’re lying, jester.” Jongdae stares a bit more, and Baekhyun gives up on his weak attempt to keep from walking through the door.

“Why do you want to come to this party again?” Baekhyun turns on him, staring Jongdae straight in the eye and piercing through his soul like he’s trying to possess him. “You didn’t come to Amber’s party when I invited you last week, and everyone knows that her parties are better anyways.”

Why does Baekhyun seem so angry? He was perfectly fine when he was forcing Jongdae to put in all his piercings earlier and actually wear something party appropriate.

“Jackson asked me personally. How was I supposed to look him in the eye and say no?” Jongdae leans a bit onto Baekhyun, feeling the rods of tension holding him perfectly rigid, and deciding to act a bit cute if nothing but to get Baekhyun no longer this frowny. “Please, hyung? Just a few minutes and then we go?” 

“Stop pouting, you don’t look cute.” Of course Jongdae just pouts harder, reaching down with one arm to take Baekhyun’s hand. Baekhyun relaxes a little as soon as he’s gripping onto Jongdae like he was afraid that Jongdae would suddenly be pulled away by a hoard of people, and rolls his eyes, giving in. “Fine. Just after a few drinks we go.” 

The door is unlocked when Jongdae tries it, and then they’re thrown into a different dimension where the lights change with the beat of the music, time doesn’t really exist, and the punch bowl passed around is being used to hold slips of paper instead of punch. Or alcohol. Whatever the punch bowl usually has more of, that.

“Hey! I’m glad you made it, Jongdae, Baekhyun!” Jackson greets them as soon as the door is shut, pushed close by something that might’ve been a hand or the spirit that they say haunts the building, handing them both unopened bottles of coldish water. “Haven’t seen you around here for awhile Baek, did you convert to Amber too?” 

“Yeah, sorry, she just kinda swooped in and stole me away when you weren’t here to protect me.” Baekhyun shrugs, completely at ease talking to Jackson. 

“It do be like that at times. Should’ve taken better care of him.” Amber adds, walking up and slinging an arm around Baekhyun from his other side. 

“Dammit Amber, stop stealing my party friends.” Jackson shakes his head as Amber squeezes Baekhyun’s organs once and then Jongdae’s organs once. “Well, have fun you two, drinks are in the kitchen and I’ll be the one shining in neon if you need anything.” 

He gives what might’ve been a wink to Jongdae before he and Amber disappear into the crowd, arguing about the semantics and finer points of party friends and if they can actually be stolen. Baekhyun tenses up again as soon as they’re gone, and scans the room as if he’s actually the height of a helicopter.

“Hey, where’s Yeollie?” He asks, now recognising his height and standing on tippy-toes to look around.

“He has evening classes, remember?” Jongdae answers, watching Baekhyun make a mini fool out of himself while still completely sober. “And here I thought that you had completely memorised his schedule already.”

“I did! I just forgot it for a second.” Even though he whines with a pout on his face, he still untenses, no longer squeezing Jongdae’s hand like a stress ball.

“Let’s just get some drinks before you forget who I am out of frustration.” Jongdae suggests, and Baekhyun doesn’t even counter it. 

The kitchen is full of a bunch of other people, talking, pouring, stirring, and just generally drinking. They part gracefully, unfurling the way to the drinks for Jongdae and Baekhyun to get their own without complaint, some even offering greetings or holding out open bottles to pour some for them. Jongdae only takes a beer, but when someone hands Baekhyun a plastic cup and start pouring something out, he’s already gone. 

The crowd doesn't let them out of the room as easily, instead pushing them back and forth among people like a ball batted around by a kitten. In fact, with the helpful diagram of a Venus flytrap in the corner, Jongdae’s suddenly reminded of a bug flying in and swaying side to side, pushing out as it tries to escape. Well, Jongdae’s no fly, and he’s certainly not dying in this party so he grabs Baekhyun and pulls him out.

“Why did you take us out?” Baekhyun asks, already slightly tipsy with half a cup still left, the only thing still certain being the hand connected to his own. “I was having a few drinks.”

“And you seem half-dead on your feet already.” Kyungsoo slides up, an imitation of a scowl on his face and Jongin in tow. 

“Soo! But Jongin? Why are you here, pure baby?” Baekhyun slides his hand out of Jongdae’s and pushes his cup for him to hold as he walks over to cup Jongin’s face in his hands, squishing his cheeks. Kyungsoo and Jongdae share a look as Jongdae hands Baekhyun’s cup over to Kyungsoo and Kyungsoo takes a sip, making a face at the multitude of poisons within.

Jongdae’s phone buzzes, and he checks it to find that the pieces of his puzzle are falling straight into place. 

“He’s here?” Kyungsoo asks, indicating the phone.

“Yeah. I’ll go grab him and you get Baek where he needs to be. Where are you guys planning on shoving him?” Jongdae asks, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

“Oh, we grabbed a room and we’re planning on shoving them in the walk-in closet.” A respectable plan.

“Hey rat tail, I’m going to the bathroom for a second!” Jongdae calls, and Baekhyun barely gives him a nod as he continues talking cooing at Jongin, a very one-sided conversation.

Chanyeol waits outside a bit awkwardly, seeming too much like all angles and limbs, yet taking up only a portion of the space he should be taking up. He doesn’t look too different, but the leather jacket and combat boots he’s wearing shows that he’s at least made an effort to be in party attire.

“Hey. How was class?” Jongdae teases as he holds the door open, inviting Chanyeol into the madness and handing him the unopened water Jackson had handed him a bit earlier.

“Ugh, don’t even talk to me about classes.” Chanyeol huffs, looking completely tired out. “I don’t want to even think about anything for the next few hours, my brain is officially useless and I need a new one.” 

“Well, that’s why you’re here.” Jongdae pulls Chanyeol into the drinks room and watches as he goes through the Byun Baekhyun guide to getting drunk, steps one through four, and then pulls him out so he isn’t so incoherent that he can’t actually think straight. No wonder they’re so compatible.

“Where are you taking me now?” Chanyeol clings onto Jongdae as they slowly make their way forwards, a steady pace for those without the best control of their limbs, a category that prominently features Chanyeol right now. “I wanted to do that competition.” 

“Well, you can win another competition, Mr. Yeol. I’m going to find the people I’m more acquainted with so we’re not just getting tossed about in the kitchen.”

“Is Yifan there?” 

“Probably.” Jongdae shrugs. “Junmyeon was invited, so he’ll drag him along.”

“Yay!” And then he lets go of Jongdae to speed up the process and walks straight into a clown convention, and immediately knocks everyone down like an out of control bowling pin.

“How about we don’t do that again?” Jongdae suggests when Chanyeol finished apologising to the clowns and removed himself from the sudden pile of silk napkins tied together, once again slowly walking along with Jongdae.

“Okay mother.” If only Chanyeol was saying it ironically.

To Chanyeol’s delight, Yifan is indeed here, and the first thing he does is steal Yifan away to leech off the one person taller than him. So Jongdae steals Yifan’s vacated seat, plopping himself down right between Junmyeon and Minseok, Luhan suspiciously missing for once.

“Is Baekhyun in place?” Are the first words out of Jongdae’s mouth, which admittedly isn’t the best greeting. Thankfully, Junmyeon and Minseok aren’t the type to clown him for immediately asking about Baekhyun, though Baekhyun would’ve been the type to do that.

“No. Jongin probably got waylaid at the dance floor and Sehun and Zitao went to try to help, but they’re not back either. So Luhan just went, but we shouldn’t really expect any of them back any time soon.” Junmyeon explains, and Jongdae nods, pulling out his phone to fire off a few texts into their set-up group chat to tell them not to bring Baekhyun directly into the room.

“How’s your life going then?” Minseok asks, leaning into Jongdae as he nurses a vodka, leaving Junmyeon to be the one keeping an eye on Yifan and Chanyeol necessarily going wild.

“It’s been fine. Trying to fix my friends’ relationship for them, you know.” Jongdae shrugs, accepting the bottle when Minseok passes it over.

“Man, can I relate.” Minseok says, with a pointed glare at Junmyeon who just gives Minseok a sheepish smile. “But what about you? Are you doing fine? Eating properly? Not dying?” 

“I guess? I mean I’m still functioning well and I’m not really skipping any meals.” Oh god, this goes down like a chainsaw laced with barbed wire. Time to have some more.  


“I heard about the blind date, how are you feeling about it?” Minseok takes the bottle back, smoothing down Jongdae’s hair when he drops his head into Minseok’s lap. God, and everyone wonders why he likes Minseok the best. Does anyone else treat him this well? No. Baekhyun calls him a clown and Chanyeol is a much nicer Baekhyun who is also so much softer.

“I mean, it’s okay? I don’t really have any feelings on it, don’t know who I’ll be meeting, I just know that Baekhyun’s paying for everything which is part of why I’m going at all.” Jongdae shrugs the best you can while your shoulders are being pinned down, watching Chanyeol challenge Yifan to another round of beer pong, even though they haven’t finished the first.

“Well, you’ll like him. I think he’ll be good for you, too.”

Well. If he has Kim Minseok’s seal of approval, Jongdae has expectations.

“Really? Can you tell me who he is or did Baekhyun put a ban on telling me?” Minseok just shrugs, telling Jongdae all he needs to know. Figures. He would’ve done the same too.

“I can tell you about his personality. He’s a bit like Luhan, but nicer.” 

“Hyung, I’m sorry, but you know that I would’ve only have thought that was a good thing before I actually met Luhan.” Jongdae twists to look up at Minseok, and he shrugs, a smile playing on his lips.

“Yeah. But he’s got his heart in the right place.”

“You mean the centre of your palms.” Junmyeon remarks, probably just to himself, but still earning himself a smack.

“Oh yeah? You’re acting like you’re much better.” Minseok shoots back, a bit too similar to how Jongdae was thinking.

“What happened?” Jongdae asks, sensing a longer story.

“This jerk pushed me into a blind date and then into the biggest mistake of my life.” Junmyeon rolls his eyes at Minseok, who sticks his tongue out.

“Are you calling me a mistake?” Yifan falls into the seat on the other side of Junmyeon, this couch surprisingly managing to hold him as well. Junmyeon sputters to try to explain, even as he curls into Yifan a bit.

Jongdae’s phone buzzes, and he gets an update on how Baekhyun’s currently being kept company in a bedroom by Kyungsoo. The opportunity to strike comes.

“Hey, Yeollie, I need to use the bathroom.” Jongdae grabs Chanyeol before he can sit, a whine coming from him at that.

“Then go alone. I want to sit down.” Chanyeol sits down right where Jongdae had just vacated his seat, stealing Minseok’s affection and Jongdae’s trust for the next five seconds.

“I don’t know my way around and I need to pee. Just take me to the nearest bedroom bathroom so you sit on the bed or something.” Chanyeol grumbles something that makes Minseok laugh, but eventually gets up after stealing a sip from the huge bottle in Minseok’s hands.

“I thought you’ve come here before.” Chanyeol remarks as he pushes through the people slowly, heading for a room at the end of the hall, right next to where Kyungsoo had trapped Baekhyun in. 

“No, first time.” The bedroom is completely dark and empty, and Jongdae pushes through, actually needing to pee now that it’s been on his mind for so long.

“Well, this bedroom is usually empty, and the bathroom in here is one of the best.” Chanyeol advises, flopping onto the bed and not turning on the light either while Jongdae beelines for the other door in the room. It turns out to be a closet, and then Jongdae has to awkwardly walk out and then try the other other door. This time he doesn’t completely embarrass himself, which is good. 

Chanyeol’s so quiet outside while Jongdae’s washing his hands that he even wonders for a second if Chanyeol had just fallen asleep waiting. But before he can go out to figure out the truth, there’s a very familiar voice heading their way.

Apparently Chanyeol heard it too, because there’s finally movement, a shuffling that would be Chanyeol sitting up in bed alarmed, as the voice gets closer and closer and then walks in.

“Soo, why couldn’t I have just used the bathroom in that room? Stop raising your standards unexpectedly, there’s no such thing as the good bathroom you want.” Baekhyun.

“That bathroom is the best one in this house, go there.” The door swings close with a bang, and Baekhyun finally also realises that it’s a trap.

“Soo? Kyungsoo? What are you doing?” There’s banging on the door and twisting of the doorknob, and some muffled sounds from the other side, which probably means that Jongdae’s not going to be able to escape either. When he said that Chanyeol was waiting alone in the bedroom with the best bathroom in the house, he thought that he would’ve had had enough time to get out.

“You can stop trying, they clearly all planned this.” The banging stops immediately as Baekhyun immediately figures out who he was just trapped with. Chanyeol sounds a bit sad, a bit displeased, and Jongdae knew that there was a problem, but he didn’t think it would be like this.

“Chanyeol, I’m-”

“You don’t need to apologise. It was just my own delusions that ruined everything, so I should probably be the one apologizing.” Another shift of the bed, Chanyeol getting up.

“No, it’s not that-”

“I really shouldn’t have just assumed stuff, but I just kinda thought that we had a chance, and like it just made stuff awkward.”

“Yeollie-”

“So yeah, how-”

“Park Chanyeol!” Jongdae flinches even though he’s safely locked away from the duo behind a door. Baekhyun, even though, let’s say gifted, with a naturally loud voice and usually has a high volume, does not shout often. And never raising his voice like this. For the first time, Jongdae understand how truly terrifying it must be to be on Baekhyun’s bad side, all anger and hardness in his tone, and not a single ounce of mercy to cling on for negotiation.

There’s a deep inhale, and then Baekhyun starts talking. “Look, if we’re really just trapped in here like you said, we’re going to have to talk. And talking means that you’re going to have to listen to me explain. Please.” 

Chanyeol doesn’t make a sound.

“The bet at the party wasn’t for me to ask you out. If it was, then we would probably be on a date right now instead of having this conversation.” Baekhyun pauses, probably gathering his thoughts. “The bet was for me to ask out the person I like without them knowing, which was why Amber was being so ugh and trying to push you forwards.”

“Oh.” Quietly escapes from Chanyeol.

“I was complaining that it was going to be impossible to win if she kept doing that, and I’m sorry that it sounded a different way, but she was just trying to help me get up the courage to do so.”

There’s a silence where Jongdae can hear dripping, and looks up to see the showerhead doing what he wants to do.

“So you don’t not like me?” Chanyeol asks, voice so small, in just the way that his soul acts when his body can’t.

“Yeah. And do you like me?” Baekhyun’s voice quivers, shaking to betray his uncertainty.

“Yes.” Then there’s a shuffling of movement as Chanyeol probably grabs Baekhyun into a hug.

“Well, we’ve been idiots.” Baekhyun remarks.

“Nice for them to catch up to the rest of us.” Jongdae whispers to himself, not sure if it’s safe for him to go out. Or if it’ll ever be safe for him to go out.

“I’m sorry.” Chanyeol’s muffled voice comes out, and then there’s the movement of what better be Baekyun’s hand stroking Chanyeol’s head.

“I am too, and I’m glad we cleared this up, but I actually really do need to pee, so I’m going to use the bathroom.”

Shit shit shit shit shit.

Baekhyun opens the bathroom door, looks down, and then looks up, exasperated. “Fucker, you planned all of this!” 

“Well, I couldn’t just let you two suffer like that! And what am I supposed to do? Invite you both out and then have no one to talk to because you’re both too busy sulking and pretending that you’re fine while refusing to acknowledge each other exist?” Jongdae gets off the floor, his reflexes not the best under pressure.

“Jongdae, why were you on the floor?” Chanyeol asks, a bit more polite as Baekhyun just shoves him out to relieve himself.

“I panicked, I wasn’t supposed to be in there for this.” Jongdae plops onto the bed, now that the clear air of tension is finally gone.

“How much of this did you plan?” Baekhyun shouts from the bathroom, and Jongdae shrugs.

“Probably all of it. I made a whole new group chat for it too, so technically everyone’s in on it.” 

Jongdae is willing to bet that Baekhyun is secretly running through a list of insults in his head, for him and everyone else. But Chanyeol sits down on the bed next to him, and pulls Jongdae into a hug, and suddenly everything is right in the world again.

“So now that that’s done, can I finally get wasted? I haven’t had more than a few sips all night, and I didn’t invite you to a party and put in all these piercings to just get you two to make up and leave.” Jongdae asks, and Chanyeol nods, amusement clear.

“Yeah, I’ll buy you a hangover cure tomorrow morning if you can beat me in chugging something Baekhyun mixes.” Chanyeol dares, and Jongdae groans.

“But Baekhyun is shit at mixing.”

“Hey!”

“Can’t we get like Minseok or someone to mix it?” Jongdae asks, ignoring Baekhyun’s offended shout over the flow of water.

“Scared?” Chanyeol taunts.

“Fine, you’re on.” Jongdae accepts reluctantly, and Baekhyun steps out, clearly not very pleased at all with Jongdae’s behaviour tonight.

“Don’t insult my mixing one more time, you unskinned fox.”  


“That’s a regular fox.” Chanyeol butts in, earning himself a new glare as Jongdae knocks on the door to beg to be let out.

“They’re all good now, you can open the door, Kyungsoo.” Within seconds, the door opens, revealing Kyungsoo, Jongin, Sehun and Zitao, which certainly explains why Baekhyun couldn’t open the door.

“Are you sure they’re all good?” Zitao asks, pressing that x. 

In response, Baekhyun motions for Chanyeol to bend down slightly, and when he’s close enough, pulls his new boyfriend into a kiss. Jongdae wasn’t the one who started the cheering, he swears - it was his disembodied voice that started cheering first.

“Cool and all, but can we please finally get wasted?” Sehun asks, holding enough bottles of alcohol to be able to start his own liquor store. “I didn’t steal all these for everyone to stand around gawking.”

Kyungsoo and Jongin look behind Jongdae with a suspicious look, and Jongdae turns around just in time for the tail end of a look between Chanyeol and Baekhyun that he doesn’t like very much. Almost as immediately, hands are dragging his own away, and Jongdae hears himself shout as he’s pulled into partying like how the hardcore kids do.

The next time he gets a chance to properly sit down, he’s completely drunk. There’s no question about it, since the floor is trying to pretend its water and entice Jongdae to swim in it. He nearly falls for it, but then there’s a warm thing being laid on him and another cup pushed into his hand, this one cool and refreshing. Water?

“Oh thank you.” Jongdae might be gone, but he’s not gone far enough that he has no manners left, especially for an angel. The cup is finished, and whoever handed him the cup is gone too.

The blanket around his shoulder is a nice purple. He should tell his roommate that he’s officially now the best advice giver Jongdae’s ever met. But is that a blanket? 

~~~

The light hammer smashing Jongdae’s head is a horrible thing. Birds are chirping with drills in his ears, and there’s two legs and an arm on his body, all of which are not attached, and certainly not additional pieces that Jongdae bought.

He slowly sits up, a bright purple blanket slipping down his body, along with the limbs, their owners quietly complaining. Ah, a couch. Jackson’s couch. 

“Morning?” A voice comes hesitantly from the doorway, the man, the myth, the legend himself, with the medicine of gods in hand. Jackson holds a cup of water and some tylenol in hand, looking like he wasn’t just up all night partying.

“Morning.” Jongdae confirms, and Jackson walks in, handing him the medicine. It does jack shit, but that’s just because he needs to wait a little.

“Do you drink coffee? I have a pot that’s just sitting and a pot brewing.” Jackson asks, and while coffee sounds like a good thing, it’s officially the weekend and Jongdae is probably going to leave to go home and then spend the rest of the day sleeping off this headache.

“No. Thank you for everything, though.”

“Yeah. It’s nice to see that you got Chanyeol and Baekhyun together.” Jackson remarks, then freezes like he did something wrong, which is honestly more suspicious than what he said. “Minseok drinks a lot of coffee, I’m going to get some for him see ya.”

Jackson walks out as fast as he can, which probably could qualify him for the speed walking competitions. What did he say again? Jongdae doesn’t have enough living brain cells to think it through right now. Ah well.

Now that he’s more awake, he can look around the room. The extra limbs belong to Minseok and Luhan respectively, also with the same purple blankets on them. Maybe there was a sale. There’s a hammock somehow in this room, and if Jongdae squints, that kinda looks like Sehun and Baekhyun tangled up in there. 

For some reason, there’s also a bed - a king's bed that looks noticeably out of place with Junmyeon and Yifan actually properly tucked in, while Chanyeol hangs out like he’s about to fall off, limbs too long and too big.

Jongdae stares for a moment. But slowly, with the blanket draped over his shoulders, aching body parts that shouldn’t have been cramped up like that, and the regret of a headache he carries with him, he walks over to the bed. There’s a bit more space on Junmyeon’s side that can be spared, and even though Jongdae still has all his piercings in, he takes his shoes off and gets inside. Junmyeon grumbles, but still automatically shoves over in his sleep closer to Yifan, and immediately after closing his eyes, Jongdae drifts off again.

~~~

The next time Jongdae wakes up, Minseok and Baekhyun are quietly discussing something on top of a table while Luhan is properly tucked in on the couch, his limbs spread in a more relaxed position now that there's no one else sleeping next to him. Sehun is still in the hammock, but now blanketed, and when he looks over to the other side, Chanyeol managed to properly get into bed.

The smell of coffee is everywhere, but it’s refreshing instead of overwhelming. Even better is the tylenol kicking in so Jongdae’s headache is significantly less painful, leaving one less thing to worry about.

Junmyeon blinks at him, and Jongdae blinks back. Neither of them move, who wouldn’t cherish such a precious moment to just stay in bed and pretend nothing’s going on?

And then Yifan starts talking. First it’s just something simple, an order for coffee cake. Then he repeats the order but in a dialect that Jongdae wasn’t aware he even knew. Then another one, and another one, and another one, changing his voice into all kinds of accents that Jongdae didn’t even know could exist.

“He usually does that in Chinese.” Junmyeon explains, which isn’t much of an explanation at all. 

“What’s his major again?” Jongdae asks, trying to come up with it, but his mind just staying completely clear.

“Linguistics and architecture double major.” Huh. Those are two very different things. Junmyeon sees his look of confusion and nods in sympathy. “Yeah, he’s an idiot.”

Then Yifan says something that sounds like I love you, but oh so strangely similar in such a weird and twisted way. That’s not Yifan’s voice. That’s Junmyeon’s voice, but it’s coming out of Yifan’s mouth.

“Linguistics is a fun major.” Jongdae offers, not sure what else to say.

“If you think so.”

~~~

The server brings him coffee cake and the news that no one looking for him had entered the cafe. When Jongdae had agreed to this blind date, he really didn’t think that it would be a cafe date, probably because it’s Baekhyun paying for it. But this cafe is actually decently good, a nice more pastel-neutral colour scheme, and its food all pretty good. All he even knows about his date is that his name is Zhang Yixing, which is kind of useless when he doesn’t even know how he looks. Either way, Yixing isn’t here yet, but it’s fine since Jongdae came a bit early to work on some stuff while he still can.

An hour later, there’s still no one, and Jongdae’s nearly done with his work. The good news is that there’s always more work to be done, and so he continues with that. 10 more minutes. If his date doesn’t show in 10 minutes, he’ll leave.

Another hour later, and Jongdae’s still in the coffee shop. Baekhyun isn’t responding about his date, and he doesn’t want to bother the maknaes who know this mysterious date because they have class, as does Minseok. Whatever. At this point, it’s just a study session anyways. 

Jongdae leaves after 3 hours in the cafe. It had been a very productive day, and even though it wasn’t exactly a date, he still used Baekhyun’s card to buy himself food, half because of spite, half because there was always just a little bit of hope before there was none. 

So even though Jongdae scribbles out a quick message to his roommate about being stood up, since at this point they just use post-its to talk, he can lie down in bed for the first time in weeks without having to worry about any work. 

~~~

“Are you bitter? Waiting for 3 hours is pretty tough.” That’s what the purple post-it on his closet says, but the post-it on the back of the door says “I stood up a guy on a blind date because I accidentally fainted and people overreacted and brought me to stay the night in a hospital. I hope I could figure out where he is to apologise.” 

Jongdae hopes that he could too, and that his own date didn’t suffer as much as his roommate did. 

“Why were you going to a blind date? On the market for a beau?” This post-it goes onto the wall, and then Jongdae goes to class.

When he gets back, there’s a new post-it on his own wall. “Nah. My friend was complaining that I needed someone to take care of me so I stopped being so unhealthy. This didn’t really help my case but I don’t think they’re going to set me up on any more blind dates for the next few years.”

Jongdae, though without a clue as to who his roommate could be, feels the exact sentiment as the friend. He’s woken up at odd hours and found the bed next to his own empty, but the post-it's clearly indicate that his roommate exists and does come back to talk with him. 

“You should probably get onto the market then. I agree with your friend, whatever you’re doing can’t be the healthiest. Who do you think are the cutest ones on campus?” 

And so the conversation goes. It’s kinda nice seeing someone with the same taste in men validating that it’s good to like those particular men, especially since the only people who have bothered with Jongdae so far are Chanyeol and Baekhyun, even though they aren't much help at all since Chanyeol’s taste in men is Baekhyun and Baekhyun’s taste is Chanyeol. 

~~~

Maybe it’s hallucinations, maybe it’s just hotel trivago, but Jongdae starts seeing more and more of the music boy. He seems to pop up everywhere, from turning a corner to passing by in the halls. Once Jongdae even walks into the dorm to see him walking out, and yet, Jongdae can do nothing but watch him go.

“So, do you actually like anyone in particular?” Flashbacks of the music boy who just walked out with Jongdae’s heart yet again race through his eyes as he stares at this completely coincidental note from his roommate. Should he admit it? Would Baekhyun or Chanyeol break in and steal this confession and hold it against him? 

Truth is, the chances are no, and might as well just make it official.

“Yeah. There’s this guy who I’ve always seen around the music building but I’ve been seeing him in so many other places recently. He’s really cute and probably has my whole heart. You?”

The next post-it is on the ceiling directly over Jongdae’s bed. Well, if nothing else, he knows that his roommate is taller than him, as Jongdae reaches for it while on the bed and just barely misses it.

“Yeah. I also don’t know his name, but he’s cute, with kittenish lips and curled eyes, but he’s usually with his friends so I can’t just approach him.”

This description almost sounds familiar. Unfortunately, Jongdae really doesn’t know who he is. This unrequited love boat is quite large.

~~~

It’s surprisingly how fascinating the way human beings continue existing There are millions, billions, an infinite amount of things that could’ve gone wrong, but most humans have all managed to live through them and exist, both as themselves and as a species. And it’s because of ideas and simple facts like this that people should try to find out more about the world, the things that govern it, and why we are just, still alive. 

Jongdae thinks that he might’ve just experienced one of those moments that should’ve ended with him dead as a huge weight slams into his chest, sending his book flying and him into pure fight or flight mode. 

By the time he could see straight instead of a mess of panic and black hair, Luhan is moaning slightly on the floor as he clutches onto his stomach in a manner quite identical to Jongdae on the bed, both of them aching one way or another. 

“Okay, maybe I was in the wrong, but did you have to punch me in the stomach and kick me off the bed?” Luhan groans, curled up into a ball and looking up at Jongdae in pain. Jongdae doesn’t have much sympathy for Luhan, being that he’s also nursing a wound, and resolves himself to peering down at Luhan as best as he can.

“Who told you to jump onto me then?” Jongdae glares instead, the gentle burn of his chest lingering far too long to be normal. 

“That’s fair.” Luhan jumps up, apparently all back to normal, which isn’t fair at all, because Jongdae still hurts. “Nice room you have. It’s not that neat, but then again, my standards are too high for anyone to meet.”

“How are you better so soon? And don’t come into my room and insult me, it’s actually really neat!” Jongdae knows it’s not that neat, but Luhan really has less than two rights to insult him, especially after hurting him so soon.

“I play football, your kick is weak in comparison to what I usually get hit with.” Luhan pokes at the pile of papers currently on Jongdae’s desk, flipping through and giving himself a tour. “Also, I’m not insulting your room, I’m just saying that no one can actually meet my standards.” 

“So you’re saying that even Kyungsoo and Baekhyun’s room isn’t neat enough?” Jongdae sits up. It seems a bit too dangerous to have Luhan wandering around the room unsupervised.

“You forget I room with Minseok.” Luhan wanders over to Jongdae’s roommate’s side of the room, picks up a medical textbook from his desk and makes a face at it. “Man, I’m so sorry.”

“Stop poking around my roommate’s things, he doesn’t need to have you messing things up.” Jongdae figures that he should probably try to get Luhan away from that side of the room, and away from the wall before he just starts reading the post-its, now more or less covering the walls. It’s getting tricky trying to figure out where to put a post-it so that his roommate will definitely look at it and not just assume that it’s a throwaway that he had long read and responded to, but Jongdae usually puts it on top of a pillow, which works perfectly. 

“Yeah yeah.” Luhan takes one of Jongdae’s blue post-its, glancing over the probably meaningless words before sticking it back onto the wall and turning back towards Jongdae. “So, wanna go watch a movie and have dinner afterwards?”

“Do I have to pay?” Jongdae asks warily, since Luhan had once tricked him into volunteering to pay for everyone that went out, and he is never paying that big of a bill again.

“Just for your own ticket. It’s date night for me and Minseok so I’m paying for dinner.” Luhan spins a pen that he picked up out of nowhere on his fingers, the move mesmerising in its speed. 

“I don’t want to just be third-wheeling your date though.” Jongdae points out, and Luhan nods. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve considered this.”

“You mean Minseok did.” Jongdae points out, and Luhan ignores him, barrelling on.

“That’s what I said. If you want to bring a friend or someone then do so.”

“Why do you want me to come so much anyways?” Jongdae asks, because something about this whole setup is weird. 

“Baekhyun said something about not allowing you to rot inside at home so I’m going to drag you out. Besides, I never see your face anymore.” Luhan squeezes Jongdae’s face, squishing him into submission. Well, that’s probably what he’s trying to do at least. 

“Fine, I’ll go, I’ll go, just stop squeezing me.” Jongdae forces out, leaving Luhan to grin in satisfaction that his plan worked. 

“Great. Who are you bringing?” Luhan lies on Jongdae’s legs, looking for all purposes ready to take a nap.

“Look, I only have two friends, it’s not like I have too much choice in who I choose to go with.” Jongdae moves his legs in an attempt to shake Luhan off. It doesn’t work because Luhan is actually pretty dedicated on resting his head on Jongdae’s legs and Jongdae isn’t dedicated to doing the same thing. 

“I thought I was your friend.” Luhan pouts, unfriended as a status.

“You’re my mortal enemy.” Jongdae deadpans.

“I’ll take it. So, both or neither?”

~~~

“Baekhyun has class right now and he’s trying this new thing out called not skipping.” Chanyeol explains as he takes a sip from Jongdae’s slushie. 

“Ah. It’s overrated.” Luhan nods in understanding, and gets hit by Minseok for his trouble.

“Look, we’re trying to encourage him, not discourage him. Do you know how much money he’s basically burning by not attending class?” Minseok scolds, and Luhan hangs his head in shame.

“So why are we here again?” Chanyeol whispers to Jongdae, slowly following the one-sided bickering couple.

“Luhan said something about Baekhyun wanting me to get out more and I refuse to be a third-wheel alone.” Jongdae whispers back, covering their traces with popcorn that Chanyeol is eating, wait - “And don’t eat the popcorn! If we run out in the middle of the movie, you’re the one who has to go out to buy more.”

“Deal.” Chanyeol grabs a huge handful and shoves it into his mouth.

They ended up running out of popcorn halfway through the movie. 

“So what did you think about it? Is it fun? See it again, the first thing you’ll burn to survive?” Luhan asks, eating the crumbs of his and Minseok’s popcorn.

“It was decent.” Chanyeol says, and Jongdae can’t exactly disagree. It was a movie. They watched it. Over. 

“Told you we should’ve seen the horror one.” Minseok smirks, and Luhan rolls his eyes, before they pinpoint on something in the distance and move away. 

“Yeah, yeah, you can tell me all about that over dinner, I’m gonna say hi to a friend.” Luhan walks away. There’s the music boy walking away from the theatre as Luhan jogs to whoever his friend is, and-

“What do you want to eat?” Minseok asks, pulling up a map of the nearby restaurants.

“Isn’t it your date night? Shouldn't you be the one choosing?” Jongdae can practically see Chanyeol salivating over the pictures of each restaurant's food that Minseok pulls up, and wonders how he still has the stomach after so much popcorn.

“Yeah, but I’m not particularly craving anything. You guys can choose.” 

“Anything?” Chanyeol asks, eyes glued to a particularly good picture of a beautiful piece of meat. 

“Anything.” Minseok confirms.

“You better not pick a fast food or pizza place.” Jongdae demands. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” Chanyeol grins evilly, holding out a picture of the most expensive restaurants in this neighborhood.

“Luhan’s going to have a heart attack.” Minseok shakes his head, showing no distraughtness at the soon to be loss of his boyfriend.

“You’re being really nonchalant about this.” Chanyeol remarks.

“Well, I’m not the one paying.” And if that ain’t the biggest mood.

~~~

Luhan now refuses to go anywhere with Jongdae, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun because of association, and while that wouldn’t be the biggest loss in the world, Jongdae really enjoyed their after math lunches together. 

It’ll be fine though, because Luhan’ll come around, but in the meantime, he can finally just take a nap after classes instead.

“You can’t get to a bed?” Jongdae opens his eyes to see Minseok leaning over him, a pitying smile on his face as he looks down at what must be the best representation of Jongdae’s life so far.

“It’s too far.” Jongdae claims, sitting up so he doesn’t completely look like he’s breaking down inside.

“Huge mood.” Yifan agrees, but apparently he had given up all fucks about how someone could possibly perceive him, because he immediately lies down on the part of the bench that Jongdae had vacated and closes his eyes to take a nap.

“How are you holding up?” Jongdae asks the older man cautiously, and just gets a shake of his head in response. 

“There’s been a lot of stuff getting thrown at us.” Minseok says gently, and Yifan just groans in response.

“I speak four langues, countless dialects, and now all I can think of is xiun.” Yifan makes a sound that Jongdae is pretty sure he’s not going to be able to replicate, and while Jongdae isn’t that level of dying yet, he feels so much empathy in his soul.

“How about we get you to bed? Both of you.” Yifan just flops one arm in response, which probably means yes.

When Jongdae’s back in the safety and comfort of his own room, there’s no purple post-it waiting for him. The post-it he wrote this morning is gone, along with a pair of jeans that his roommate was waiting to dry before putting on. 

He’s a bit hurt, but sometimes you just don’t have time to write a response. It’ll go back to normal later when his roommate gives him a response.

~~~

Things did not go back to normal. A week passed and nothing but his own written post-its have been used to correspond. Jongdae keeps waiting another day, then another, before he finally realises that this is the letting time slip out of his fingers scenario that happened in the cafe. If he wants to figure out why his roommate isn’t responding, he’s going to have to figure it out himself.

Namjoon isn’t in his room when Jongdae knocks, so he’ll just come back later. Since that was his one and only idea for figuring out who his roommate is, it seems that Jongdae’s going to just have to play the waiting game with Namjoon, until eventually he catches the RA in his room. 

The day is beautiful, with a nice breeze that isn’t too cold and the sun pouring happiness down upon him. Yet the confusion over his roommate makes him feel nothing but cold sadness and concern.

“Hyung!” Jongdae turns to find Zitao and Sehun, somehow always stuck together despite their extremely different schedules.

“Hey you two. What are you guys doing?” Jongdae slows for them to catch up, and Zitao holds up a few shopping bags in response. 

“Shopping. You?” Zitao asks, the hand he has on Sehun’s shoulder slowly starting to wrap around Sehun’s neck, pulling him in like a hungry snake. Sehun doesn’t seem all that phased by it, but it’s Zitao and Sehun. 

“Just walking and thinking I guess.” And then, from the corner of his eye comes the music boy, singular folder in his arm and walking with the leisure that usually no one besides those who have no cares or all the cares in the world walks with.

“Who’s he?” Sehun asks, practically tracing Jongdae’s vision with his own.

“If you like him, then you should ask him out or something.” Zitao inserts.

“What? I didn’t even deny liking him yet.”

Zitao shrugs. “We know it's going to happen, so might as well just skip straight forward to the helpful advice section, alright?”

Sehun glares at Zitao as if to say “this isn’t on the script,” but turns back to Jongdae, nothing in the world left but leisure. “Hyung, just ask him his name. You’re going to keep on regretting it if you don’t even ask.”

“I didn’t even tell you about that.” Jongdae realises, finding a bit of this time loop off.

“Baekhyun did. Now go get your man.” Zitao gives Jongdae a bit of a shove forwards, and even though Jongdae doesn't like it, it’s helpful.

“If this fails, it’s on your heads.” Jongdae warns, getting only waves in return. He sets off for the music boy, feeling the pressure of the day. It’s such a beautiful day, and this could change the whole day depending on what happens.

“Hi?” Jongdae asks shyly, a nice, calm, standard introduction. The music boy turns around, takes one look at Jongdae, and then start sprinting away??? Did Jongdae do something wrong?

“Wait! Did I do something? Why are you running?” Unfortunately, the boy does not respond, and Jongdae sucks at chasing people, so by the time they’re at the dorms again, Jongdae has completely lost him, and his breath. 

There’s not a single living being in sight, not even a breeze or a singular flutter of a bird, which is weird, especially considering this should be one of the busiest walkways in the whole building. And maybe it’s just him, since the sun is still nicely shining down upon the ground, but chills fly down Jongdae’s spine and he feels the need to get inside, get out of the no longer friendly sun, and back into the safety of his dorm.

The goosebumps on the back of his arm seems to grow the closer he gets to his room, which is weird since he still hasn't seen a single living soul. The door isn’t locked, which is alarming since Jongdae was pretty sure that he had at least locked it before leaving earlier, and Jongdae almost doesn’t want to go in. 

In one swing, Jongdae pushes the door open and walks in. And for the first time since getting this room, there’s already someone inside.

The music boy is frozen in a place of beauty, perhaps almost like a sculpture that would be carved by the hands of an artist, a clear shirt on the way off his body.

“What are you doing in my room?” Jongdae feels his voice loosen up first, and then the boy unfreezes, clutching the shirt to his chest in a show of false modesty.

“This is my room.” His voice is just as angelic, soft and lilting. It sounds just as nice as Jongdae had always imagined it, or maybe it was just a constant drifting in and out of his life, hauntingly familiar. 

“_ You’re _ my roommate?” Jongdae asks, disbelief mixing with a kind of hope coming into him for whatever reason - something thrumming at the thought of being able to finally solve all the mysteries at once.

“I guess so?” There’s another few seconds of staring, and without breaking eye contact, he slowly drops his shirt on his bed, still mussed up like how it wasn’t this morning, and picks up a second shirt and slowly slides it on.

His abs are gorgeous. Sure, that shouldn’t be the priority right now, and Jongdae knows that Satan himself will be welcoming him to Hell as soon as he has the audacity to even think about dying, but even though he’s thin, his body is nothing but hard and neatly defined hard muscle. What does he do? Who is he? Why did he run and why did he stop replying to Jongdae’s post-it notes? All brilliant and necessary questions, yet Jongdae can’t stop thinking about how his abs look gorgeous.

“I’m Kim Jongdae.” Jongdae holds his hand out first, just to make up for ogling him like crazy, as soon as the shirt is properly on and Jongdae is definitely not still thinking about those subtle abs oh no absolutely not.

The music boy hesitates for just a second before he reaches out.

“Zhang Yixing.” Yixing - god it’s so nice to place a name to a face - takes his hand and shakes it gently. And Jongdae’s suddenly hit with a moment of such clarity, at the irony and funny situation of this meeting.

“You’re the one who stood me up!” Jongdae laughs, incredulous, before covering his mouth as soon as possible, realizing too late that it was nowhere near proper etiquette.

“I told you that they sent me to the hospital!” Yixing protests, taking his hand back, a frown drooping down onto the soft corners of his lips. “And I wouldn’t have skipped if I knew that it was going to be you.”

“I know, I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just really ironic that we were going to go on a blind date and that we’re just meeting each other when we know so much about each other.” Jongdae explains, the laugh out of his system. “And what did you mean by you wouldn’t have skipped?”

“Nothing.” In seconds, Yixing’s soft and funny side retreats, the one that Jongdae was writing notes to, and he becomes the mysterious music boy once again. But he’s no longer just the music boy, never will be. Not when Jongdae knows so much about him.

“I think it was something. What is it? You know all of my deepest secrets already.” Jongdae doesn’t know why on earth he’s being so bold, but this isn’t just Zhang Yixing or music boy, this is his roommate.

“But, I can’t. I’m not that type of a person.” Yixing’s eyes widen up as if he’s already said too much.

Jongdae blinks. “What do you mean, that type of person?” 

“I’m not a homewrecker, or however you say that word.” His words stutter a little as he tries to pronounce it properly, and Jongdae feels his heart skip a few beats along with it. His accent is the most adorable thing, and if Jongdae wasn’t so gone for this boy already, this would have been the final push.

“How are you being a homewrecker?” Jongdae dares to step one step closer, crossing the gulf separating them. Yixing doesn’t flinch back, still standing tall and proud as he always had.

“Because you’re dating someone.”

The confidence Jongdae had felt falters as his face goes slack. “What?”

Who? Why was Jongdae not informed of this decision? Who is the unnamed person who is allegedly dating him?

“Your boyfriend?” Yixing asks, tone somehow getting even higher and softer in his confusion. “The tall one that you were on a double-date with Minseok and Luhan?” 

It takes a moment for Jongdae to process it properly. But he does, and his face scrunches up.

“Chanyeol?” Jongdae never knew that he could feel so much shock, disgust, and surprise at saying a simple name, but apparently there’s always something more to learn.

“Yeah. He plays and makes music, doesn’t he?” Yixing continues, unaware of how easily he’s scooping out Jongdae’s intestines.

“He does. But I’m not dating him. I’m definitely not dating him, and I’ll never date him.” Jongdae hurries to brush away all the leftover anguish, sending it out of his mind. 

“But he mentioned that he just got a boyfriend, and you called someone darling on the phone?” Yixing’s voice is getting more and more confused, and if Jongdae wasn’t facing the biggest existential crisis of his lifetime, he would coo.

“Baekhyun. He’s dating Byun Baekhyun, and I was calling Baekhyun darling as a joke all the time anyway, since he’s my best friend. I’m not,” Jongdae shivers to get some leftover disgust out, “I’m not dating him,” watching as Yixing scratches his ears, which have started to turn pink.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” But then Jongdae’s brain helpfully does a rewind of the past few seconds, and something clicks into place again. “Oh. The person you mentioned in the notes.” And Jongdae _ knows _ there’s too much hope in his voice when he asks, “That was me?”

“Yes?” Yixing admits, the expression on his face seeming to be more like a question of why Jongdae thinks that’s surprising. 

“But why?” Jongdae can’t think of a single thing about himself that he’d want to like, and he’s himself.

“Because you always seem so caring, and you’re nice to your friends, and it’s all kinda useless since you like someone else anyways.” Yixing finishes his sentence with a little bit of a pout, and Jongdae is suddenly suckerpunched another time.

“It’s you. The person I was talking about.” Jongdae feels a bit like they’re trying to communicate through smoke signals, or something equally as useless, or they just have no brain cells because this whole thing is nothing but a mess.  
  
“Me? Really?” Yixing asks, sounding as surprised as Jongdae was.

“Yeah.” And like that, Jongdae levels up and gains another brain cell, enough to graduate from one word responses again. “Did you stop talking to me because you thought that I was dating someone else?” 

Yixing looks at the floor, a bit sheepish, and Jongdae takes that answer for what it is. “Do you think we can start over with the whole introductions?” Yixing asks, still a bit awkward.

“I think it’s best that we do.” Jongdae admits, and Yixing nods in agreement.

He takes a deep breath, and before Jongdae, he transforms into a new person, not Yixing, the music boy, or his roommate. He’s swoon-worthy, and Jongdae fears for the stability of his knees as Yixing looks directly into his eyes and holds out a hand. “Hi. I’m Zhang Yixing, I like you, and I’ll be your roommate this year.”

“I’m Kim Jongdae, I like you too, and I’ll be honoured to have you as a roommate.” Jongdae shakes Yixing’s hand again, very surprised that he didn’t accidentally stammer something out and embarrass himself again. 

As soon as they drop hands, Yixing’s facade falls as well, and he smiles at Jongdae, a promise of a new beginning. Jongdae’s heart marks down the fact that Yixing has the most adorable dimples ever and jumps into double speed, so loud that Jongdae is almost scared Yixing can hear.

“Can I take you out for a proper date? Now that I know I have a chance?” Yixing asks, and with that smile, Jongdae would’ve walked to the end of the world and into death.

“Can you promise not to stand me up again?”

Yixing laughs at that, and Jongdae does too, and there’s still time in the school year to be able to do it right this time. Jongdae’s smile softens as he looks at the beautiful boy in front of him.

“I would love to go on a date with you, dear roommate.” 

**Author's Note:**

> (I love reading and replying to comments so like even if you're summoning demons in latin in the comments please do so.)


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